MCP Servers for VS Code

Name: VS Code
Author: Microsoft

VS Code reads its servers from .vscode/mcp.json. Of the 31 603 we track, 10 496 answer right now without any credentials, 3 357 sign you in through the browser and 1 323 want an API key you paste into the config. The blocks below are ready to paste — each is built from the address we actually reached, in the format this client expects.

What 31 603 servers look like from VS Code

Work as is answering now, no credentials asked 10 496 33.2%

Browser sign-in you authorise once, the client keeps the session 3 357 10.6%

Need a key you paste a key from the vendor into the config 1 323 4.2%

Run locally installed from a package, nothing to reach over the network 10 286 32.5%

Not responding listed as active, answer nothing 6 146 19.4%

Availability, last 24 hours share of the 21 317 remote servers answering, hour by hour

24 hours agonow

10 496

work with no key

answering now and open to anonymous clients

3 357

you authorise once, the client keeps the session

1 323

need an API key

you paste a key from the vendor into the config

10 286

run on your machine

installed from npm or PyPI, no uptime to measure

6 146

listed but dead

skip these — the registry still calls them active

How to add a server to VS Code

per workspace, so it travels with the repository

Add the file to the workspace

It lives next to your other editor settings, so it can be committed and shared with the team.

mkdir -p .vscode && touch .vscode/mcp.json

Paste the server block

Take it from any server card here — the address comes from our last successful handshake.

Use it from agent mode

MCP tools are available to the agent, not to plain chat completion. If nothing shows up, check which mode you are in before touching the config.

What it looks like

a real server, not a placeholder

.vscode/mcp.json Playwright MCP →

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "playwright-mcp": {
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@playwright/mcp"
      ],
      "command": "npx"
    }
  }
}

Servers to start with

all 31 603 in the catalogue →

Playwright MCP

by microsoft

Playwright Tools for MCP

5 247 752 installs/wk local only

Firebase MCP

by firebase

Gives AI development tools Firebase-specific capabilities and expertise.

2 171 835 installs/wk local only

Context7

by upstash

Up-to-date code docs for any prompt

536 148 installs/wk 2 tools answering

Browser Use

by browser-use

Control a real Chrome browser to complete any task: fill forms, extract data, book flights.

1 689 793 installs/wk local only

Storybook MCP Addon

by storybookjs

Help agents automatically write and test stories for your UI components.

1 463 451 installs/wk local only

Chrome DevTools MCP

by chromedevtools

MCP server for Chrome DevTools

1 000 705 installs/wk local only

Snyk

by snyk

Easily find and fix security issues in your applications leveraging Snyk platform capabilities.

501 714 installs/wk local only

Terradev

by theoddden

Cross-cloud GPU orchestration CLI.

4 391 installs/wk 245 tools answering

AWS MCP Server

by aws

AWS MCP Server lets AI securely access AWS using docs, API calls, and SOP workflows.

278 552 installs/wk local only

Hermoso

by hermoso-ai

Marketing on autopilot from your agent. 847 tools, usable alone. Publishing and ads cost no credits.

3 174 installs/wk 180 tools answering

Telnyx

by team-telnyx

Official TypeScript library for the Telnyx API

219 358 installs/wk local only

EdgarTools

by dgunning

Open-source SEC EDGAR toolkit — 11 tools, 7 prompts, every filing type. No API key required.

194 202 installs/wk local only

Browse all 31 603 servers the list is the same for every client — only the config differs

Things that trip people up with VS Code

Written from how VS Code reads its config, not from its release notes.

The file is shared with the team

Because it sits in the repository, everyone who clones it gets the same servers. Keep secrets out of it — a token committed to a config file is a token published.

Why do the tools not appear?

Two usual causes: you are not in agent mode, or the server requires credentials and answered with a challenge. The second case is not a failure — 27% of remote servers do exactly that.

Workspace file or user settings?

The workspace file travels with the repository and describes what this project needs. User settings apply everywhere. Anything touching production data belongs in the first, not the second.

Can a config from Cursor be reused?

The JSON shape is the same, so a server block copies across without changes. The path differs — .vscode instead of .cursor — and that is the whole migration.

How to tell a working server from a listed one?

Not from the catalogue entry: 2 245 servers are marked active in the official registry and respond to nothing. Every server page here shows the result of our last handshake, repeated every 15 minutes.

Do local servers need anything installed first?

They are fetched by the package runner on first launch, so nothing to install by hand — but the runner itself must be present. A missing npx or uvx looks exactly like a broken server.

Same servers, other clients

the servers are the same — the config format is not

Windsurf

Editor with the agent built in. Takes stdio, streamable HTTP and SSE, and can carry an OAuth login for each of the three.

~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json

Cline

Autonomous agent living inside VS Code. Handles local processes and remote endpoints over streamable HTTP or SSE, but authorisation is on you — through headers or environment variables.

~/.cline/mcp.json

Gemini CLI

Google's command-line agent. Takes all three transports and carries a full OAuth flow for remote servers, including service-account impersonation.

~/.gemini/settings.json

JetBrains AI Assistant

Built into the JetBrains IDEs. Configured through the settings dialog rather than a file, and it can import a config you already wrote for another client.

Settings | Tools | AI Assistant | Model Context Protocol

OpenCode

Open-source terminal agent. Local and remote servers sit in the same mcp object, told apart by a type field, and tokens are kept outside the config.

opencode.json in the project, or ~/.config/opencode/opencode.json

Claude Code

Adds servers by command, so nothing to edit by hand. Handles both local processes and remote endpoints, including OAuth logins.

run in your terminal

Cursor

Config sits in the project folder, so servers can differ per repository — useful when one project needs database access and another must not have it.

.cursor/mcp.json

Codex

The only client here that uses TOML rather than JSON, so a config copied from elsewhere will not work as is.

~/.codex/config.toml

Claude Desktop

One global config for everything, so a server added here is available in every conversation.

~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json